In CD-11, Republican Paul DeGroot has been annoyed for weeks at a Mikie Sherrill ad alleging that he opposes abortion at all times with no exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother.

DeGroot even had a press conference to present his views. He says he is pro-choice and has been saying precisely that in campaign appearances and in ads of his own.

So is this simply a case of Sherrill maliciously running a false TV spot?

DeGroot certainly thinks so.

But it’s really a bit more complicated than that.

Let’s drill down.

DeGroot said in the wake of the Dobbs decision in late June that he’s comfortable with states determining abortion policy.

And because of his pro-choice views, he has no quibble with New Jersey law. The state Legislature codified Roe v. Wade a few months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.

Let’s move on to Congress, which is where DeGroot hopes to be headed.

The federal issue is, what happens next? There are three possibilities.

Congress can do nothing. It can codify abortion rights into federal law – as New Jersey did on the state level. Or it can ban abortion, either outright, or maybe as Sen. Lindsey Graham has proposed, after 15 weeks.

DeGroot prefers doing nothing. He has said he doesn’t support Congress legalizing abortion nationwide, nor banning it.

At times, he has said Indiana’s way of thinking should not be imposed on New Jersey and vice-versa

All fine and good.

But now we come to the states that have banned, or are considering banning, abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.

Sherrill said at a debate last week that about 22 million women reside in these states and that number will grow if more states adopt similar bans.

Asked about that, DeGroot condemns state abortion bans without exceptions for rape and incest.

We have now arrived at the key point of contention.

Should Congress do anything about it?

DeGroot’s public position is that Congress should not. And that is the basis of Sherrill’s ads. DeGroot’s refusal to say Congress should seek to nullify those bans through federal legislation.

By that reading, Sherrill’s ads are correct, although it would be more accurate for her campaign to say that DeGroot opposes congressional action to stop total abortion bans – as opposed to saying DeGroot supports the bans themselves.

Then again, subtlety and political ads don’t usually have much in common. A spokesperson for DeGroot said that the candidate believes in the federal government codifying rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions to any state abortion ban.